Ways of the Heroes
by Meat-Wagon
Summary: A brand new generation of Starcraft!
1. Prologue: The One That Got Away

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Starcraft: Ways of the Heroes

About this story: This is my view of the Starcraft game. This story will be fairly long and will take you from the period before the game, during and after the game. A small number of famous characters will be from the game but majority of them will be fabricated and completely different. Unlike the computer game, my version of starcraft won't be very far into the future. This starcraft will be set in the near future so most things and terminology related to weapons, vehicles and other technologies will be similar to today.

Prologue: The One that Got Away

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The prophecy

Heroes, they were ancient myths. From time to time, several chosen ones will come forth and save the humanity from destruction. From the dawn of time, heroes were the agents of the god, the creator of mankind. The heroes were on their missions to ensure the unity of the people, the development of the human race and their enlightenment. They were called back once their missions were done. There were periods without the heroes; darkness, murder, chaos and atrocity reigned supreme. People without their heroes proclaimed themselves to be the one, many wars were fought, blood was shed and many lives were taken. For all that, another hero came, he slowly restored peace and order through the broken world, and it was him that saved the planet and mankind from extinction. Many years had gone since the departure of that hero. Peace still existed but trouble was not very far away, another hero was needed, this hero will come to light at the mankind's darkest hour, and once again he will save the mankind from destruction. The wait had began for this hero to emerge…

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Wasteland, 3rd moon of Tyconus, Galadin system, Year 2039

The uninhabited sectors of Tyconus were rough and unforgiving. The terrain was rough and barren. It lacked water and moist. The atmosphere wasn't very good either in fact it was appalling, the sky glowed red for most of the time. That was not because of the sun but because of the pollution from the nearby industrial city Manchus. Each day more than 2.5 million tones of the suet, CFC, carbon dioxide and load of other crap rose to sky and that had been going for at least 39 years.

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Subterranean lab, 1.5 km East 98 degrees East of Manchus

The complex was as big as a modern shopping centre where there were hundreds maybe thousands of the scientists working there. Apart from them there were nearly as much and maybe more maintenance workers and security guards. The scientists on the first few sublevels were mostly young men and woman of ages between 22 to 27. They all wore the expression of total dedication to their work and their research. Most, if not all the scientists are either really smart or stupid to be working in a place like this but whatever they were, they were all social rejects. Payment was high, in fact they get paid more than a hundred times the payment if compare to their counterparts in military or civil laboratory. The reason for that was related to two words, illegal research. 

The more you descend into the lab, the more bizarre the scientists became. Age for one thing, the people who were working on last few sublevels were usually a lot older. Their appearance also became more wicked. Looking at some of the experimental subjects then look back at some of the scientists, you may not be able to tell any difference. But don't be fooled, these scientists are probably some of the wisest man alive in the entire galaxy and they had probably created some of the most deadly inventions.

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Biological weapons' bay, sub-level 12

This is by far the most mysterious place on the planet and in the universe. No government, military force, terrorist faction knew anything about this lab, not even the underground base. One of the deadliest weapons was undergoing their final preparation before completion.

By cutting through the medical bay, some of the most hideous creatures/ nightmares were finally proven their existences. Inside the two rows of stasis tubes that flanked the two sides of the medical bay contained mutants, fleshy goo, aliens cut open at the bellies and others foul substances that couldn't be described by use of modern day languages. However they were all failures of experiments, the real prize was hiding away behind the triple titanium vaults and through countless sets of security cameras, gun turrets and flame exterminators. Enter another lab similar to the medical bay, it had a label saying 'The artificial Zerg hive'. The lab itself was half the size of the medical bay and inside there was a small glass tube that laid a worm inside. The worm was brown in colour much like a piece of shit. Constantly it dripped down black-brown saliva so the tube must be specially modified to let the saliva to leave the tube while keeping the worm inside.

It may look like a worm but its DNA was program to be higher than any human or technology could get. This was the god of new specie, he who controlled this controlled new specie, and anyone who contradicted with the owner of the specie will be exterminated. However the worm had other plan…

The inevitable finally happened one day when the scientist finished analyzing with worm, they put it back to the tube. Once the worm was back inside the tube it began to work. The first step in its escape was to produce a lot of brown saliva and covered the entire tube with it. So from afar, the tube looked brown. The brown goo also dried before they could run out of the tube provided the first example of the creature's ability. It had change its metabolism rates and thus made the goo to run thicker then usual so they wouldn't fall away that quickly. The worm decided to escape today because there would be more time. Today there will be a general meeting and that would take at least 2 hours. How did the worm know about it, well it heard the news from the announcement through the speakers and the scientists. 

The worm then morphed, but the process looked more like giving birth to a baby. The worm's length extended and extended until it was twice as long as its original length. It then broke in two pieces, one a replicate of another. Then the worm squeezed through the hole that was only small enough for saliva to go through. The worm made through without problem. Freedom was nearly there, only the dome like glass shielded it from freedom. Glass maybe not accessible, its bottom connecting the metal desk was another story. Once again the worm squeezed through the nano-meter thick gap and got out. Its metabolism changed again and the saliva wouldn't drip out until it changed it back. The worm looked around, rather sensed around and quickly headed for the air ventilation duct. 

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2 hours and 12 minutes later

The scientists returned as the worm predicted. When he enter the lab, the first thing he looked for was the tube. Instead of the worm there, the tube was completely brown like it had just been repainted. He was instantly alert, presuming the worst. One scientist rushed to the computer terminals and hurriedly used cleaning fluid to cleanse the tube and checked the worm. The worst fears of the scientists' were proven, 23 years of work had been ruined. All the vital signs of the worm were now only a thing line on the displaying screen. The worm was dead. But from the gap of ventilation duct, the worm observed every movement of the three scientists and clearly read their minds. The scientist fell for its trick. It laughed but the laugh sounded more like a hiss.

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3 days later

In the long, dark sewage pipes the worm slithered across with relative freedom. According to its current growth rate, the pipes will be too small in a few years. The worm was no longer a tiny string like creature. It was now over ten meters long and nearly 3 meters in diameter. Even with such size, it moved around with amazing agility. The sewage system was as long as its big, it easily fit the worm, but not for long, the worm must find a suitable place to reproduce. 

All kinds of things came into the sewage pipe. From metal junk, to bio-toxin byproduct to dead animals, the limit of what comes down here was unknown. There was no light at all, but that didn't bother the worm at all, it could see with use of night vision, electromagnetic and heat. Ahead was something bright, the worm sensed it must be an animal of some kind, died not long ago. The worm came closer and sensed the animal was still alive but in pain as the worm saw the vision of the animal falling through a huge ventilation duct on the surface and landed awkwardly. Through the x-ray vision, the worm could see through the skin of the wild boar and saw both of its forelegs were broken. The worm felt no pity for the boar as it slowly approached its meal with an evil grin on the face. 

Two weeks later

The garbage dumping ground was busy with traffic. The first hive was near completion as the worm's minions had been busily extending the hive inch by inch. The worm had morphed into a large and hideous creature and it was cocoon to the ground. The ground, if you call it the ground was like a layer of rotten flesh as it served like a carpet for the overmind and its underlings. The saliva the dripped out of the overmind was like some sort of pastes, they automatically searched for new ground to cover. After a while, the saliva would dry and become a hard layer to let the worker to add more decoration to the hive. The overmind resembled nothing of its original form. Basically, the overmind was a giant blob of goo that grew in size every two hours, so the hive had to be extended indefinitely. 

There were at least hundreds of the zergs if not thousand. The growth rate of the zergs was amazing, every now and then, a few hundred more zerg workers were added to the general population. The worker drones were not the only zergs produced, as the hive was big enough, the overmind began the production of his fighting force…

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Two days later

There had been a problem, the vault that allowed the rubbish to go into the garbage yard was heavily jammed. A team of twelve maintenance workers was sent to investigate. Through the pitch black labyrinthine, the workers managed to reach the yard without getting completely lost because they had helps from their big flashlights and other complex positioning equipment. 

The pipes and corridors that led to the yard were completely different to what they use to be. They were all smooth and skeletal shaped much resembled the interior of a giant animal. Also the ground wasn't how it should, they seemed to be alive and covered with something sticky and the smell was awful.

The confused workers ignored all that and continued ahead until they reached the actual yard. That was when they figured out something was very wrong. The garbage dump was cleared of any garbage save a huge round organic being surrounded by thousands of bug like creature that were building the hive.

Half of the workers were stunned by the scenery. They were stunned not because of the amazement but by pure horror. The worker drones didn't care about the human intruders but the guards did. They all silently crept up to the workers without getting their attention by avoiding their light. 

Finally the workers couldn't take it any more then turned and leave. As they turned they were welcomed by around fifty warrior zergs. There were known as the zerglings. The zerglings were smallest race by the zerg standards. They were doglike as they positioned themselves at a battle stance. They all had smooth but stretched dome like head. Their tail was frightening to look at, and fatal to be swiped at. The tail was nearly 1.5 meters long and it had a with a few columns of sharp carapace on it. A swipe will usually result in the decapitation of any body parts, as the zerglings tend to like wrapping it around other organs bodies and cut they through with the sharp carapace. The zerglings also had sharp teeth, the reflection of the light beam from the flash lights made it shine. The human workers shrieked in terror as they fled but before they even got to ten meters, they were chased down by the zerglings. The warrior zergs came in front all direction in front and behind, even from above. With the suction plate grown on to the claw, legs and arms, the zerglings at easily access any terrain in three dimensions. The zerglings attacked, they attacked without mercy and hesitation. The workers finally realized that those doglike creatures had two claws as their forelegs, the only reason that they use all for limbs to run was to achieve the maximum speed and agility. The claws were sharp and they dug deep into the back of one of the workers, the zergling dug deeper and eventually dug deep enough to reach the heart and ripped out of it. The dead body went into a spasm then ceased to move. 

The other six managed reached the corridors that led to the dumping vault. They however were not as lucky as they thought they were. Standing in front of them was a detachment of hydralisks, the bigger brothers of the worrier zerglings. The hydralisks were nearly twice as big and was covered with thicker and heavier carapace for heavier protection against harm. They didn't have any leg but they had scaly muscled belly. They were much like the nightmares then reality. The hydralisk moved through the contraction of their belly muscles. They massive tail were grown with even more sharp carapaces. Instead of claws, they had two large scythes like limbs in compensation for two arms. Their face was devil like, their eyes were black, jet-black. Their mouths always seemed open and with an evil grin. Inside the mouth was the spike 'projection bay', all hydralisks had about a few dozens of those deadly stakes 'stored' in the throat and can be launched immediately. For more they needed to recuperate it from the stomach. They chased down the fleeing workers and cut them to pieces one by one until there was one left. The last one was too far away to chase, his puffing sound from exhaustion was pathetic, and one of the hydralisks ran after him for a while took aim. The worker was out of sight but the hydralisk could still sense him as he was running behind a wall. It took precise aim, inhaled some air and 'spat' the pike out. The pike penetrated through the wall and struck the last fleeing worker right in the temple and easily drove through the head. Small pieces of the brain splashed to the surround at worker fell to the ground in almost slow motion. 

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One month later

The alarm siren was ringing all over the place, there were sounds of screaming, and scene of carnage. There were sounds of running footsteps and sounds of machine fires. The entire laboratory was overrun by the zergs. The security forces and workers were treated alike, one by one they were mutilated or shredded by the zergs. The futile resistance was over after a short 30 minutes. Almost not one died cleanly or quickly. The ones that died with one stroke were considered to the lucky ones.

The females were treated much worse than their male counterparts. They were taken alive as the hive specifically ordered, so the females could be transformed into breeding hosts for more zergs. Few of the most intelligent male scientists were also taken alive, but the overmind had no plan for their use other than extraction of valuable information and knowledge about other worlds. 

Deep inside the hive, the overmind roared as the hive rumbled. Through its telepathic ability it visualized the nearby cities, planets, systems and the entire universe. 'Soon they will be mine, all mine!' 

So the zergs enter the story and they are on the loose, whoo, ahhh, yeah. The universe is on the verge of anther major intergalactic war. So far it's zerg Vs human but it will get worse. Please, review, and I mean please, I want detail review about my story. Where did I go right and where did go wrong, not just comments like 'yep good enough' or 'crap' etc.


	2. Chapter 1: An Evolutionary Response

Chapter 1: An Evolutionary Response

In had been only two years since the incident occurred on the 3rd moon of Tyconus. Swarms of zergs had already obliterated hundreds of settlements, raided thousands of outposts, overrun millions of worlds and infested countless number of human beings. They had defined their own '3 all' to those who stood in their path. 

Destroy all, consume all and infest all. Millions of worlds were laid to waste by the zerg swarm. Millions of cities were desecrated and infested. Billions of lives were slaughtered with unimaginable brutality. Seven of the thirteen systems were taken by the zergs before the United Systems Defense Protocol was formed. All systems had agreed that the zergs would be the undoing of humanity if not stopped immediately. The new military resolution was adopted with overwhelming popularity by all the leaders and their people. Soon millions, maybe billions of troops and reserves were called to arm. The human alliance struck back with ferocity. Military forces began to pour into various troubled systems and started a massive intergalactic war with the zergs on all fronts. Both sides were overwhelming in number and triple beyond prepare, however for nearly two years the humans were fighting a losing battle as the zerg gained new ground day by day. More lives were lost, more cities had fallen to the zergs, and the human race was heading closer to extinction and if the heroes do exist as the prophecy said, now was the time he would come to light. Only if he existed in this universe.

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Zerg cave, City of Marjib, Planet Colo Colo, D'artina system

Through the dark alleys of the ancient city Marjib, troops of the 153rd battalion were moving swiftly towards the hot zone. There was only minor zerg infestation on this sector and heavy artilleries and massive air power encircled them. The only thing need was the troops to go in there for the mop up. With the absolute destruction of this zerg cave, Colo Colo's zerg population can be cut dramatically by 80 percent since this planet was only a small zerg outpost, there won't be any other zerg producing caves. None would be formed yet. 

Lieutenant Coleman was running at full bar towards the hot zone. Flanking him was his nineteen-year-old protégé Sergeant Zhang. Behind her were the other troops of the Bravo Company. Sergeant Zhang's eyes were like those of the eagles sharp and always pin pointing. Two months as a scout was enough experience for her to be one of the most deadly believers in the army. Burning wreckage caused by aerial bombardment and shelling made the terrain nearly inaccessible. But the marines still advanced rapidly with the aid of their intense training of the past three years and their adrenaline rush.

'Okay, 2nd platoon and 4th platoon, watch the flank, 7th platoon watch our rear. Readings tells me the zerg hive is not far.' The newly invented bio scanner made by some geniuses had eased the jobs of the marines by a considerable margin. On the scanner, those that glowed red were all zergs and there was a whole heap of them gather together ahead.

Speak of the zergs, around thirty popped out of their burrow and headed right for the marines. The only thing nowadays that was faster than the zergs were the bullets from the gun. 

'Alright boys, teach them some rules of engagement.' That was Zhang. Not only she was one of the youngest soldier ever to be in the marine, she was also one of the best marksman/woman. At least in her battalion. 

The newly modified M-209 assault rifle was bulky but was amazingly light and reliable. Each marine had one of these, one would be fool without it. This was the bread and butter of the marine corp. The M-209 assault rifles allowed its magazines to vary but each marine had the maximum round capacity of 200. With an over and under grenade launcher. Anyone carried this toy and with some decent armor can be a force to be reckoned with. Around fifty of these rifle opened fire with the support from M-6000s light machine gun and IC-11 flame-thrower. The thirty zerglings were shot, burned and cut down before they even reached half the distance. With up to one hundred guns firing at the same time, everything in front of the marines was a field of distortion. The marines didn't stop firing until everything in front of them stopped moving.

The marines quickly hopped over the bodies of the zerglings that were either burnt or riddled with bullets. Another wave of zerglings with some support from the hydralisks made their charge against the marines. Again there was a big firefight and the marines didn't stop shooting until everything wasn't moving. The marines continued as they increased their winning streak to 2-nil. 

The area around the zerg cave entrance was quiet as expected; they were all zerg like. In other words, everything in the area that was infested by the zergs had organic matter on them. The young and resourceful Zhang nearly threw up like, likewise for a few hundred men behind her. The zerg certainly had and edge over the other races in a war. Everything about the zergs were terrifying, their architect, if any, body appearance, tactic, you name it. The humans were not immune to their stomach-churning atmosphere either. Just about everybody had their molecule curled for a while before they got used to the zerg 'culture'. Only lieutenant Coleman seemed to be functioning normal. He quickly issued command to move in.

'Lieutenant, it's all clear.' Corporal Boon reported in. The marines now advanced with great caution, knowing that the zergs would ambush them at the turn of every corner. They reached the zerg infestation with no engagement.

The zerg cave was basically a huge organism that was buried underneath the ground, not that anybody had been down there. Satellite data had shown that there were about four hundred separate tunnels that connect the cave to the surface. A small cave hosted at least forty thousand zergs of various kinds and they could surface out of any of the four hundred tunnels simultaneously. 

Seemed like Bravo Company wasn't the first group of marines to arrive, the troops of the Charlie Company were already there thrashing about. They fired at everything that moved. Pretty scenic when watching from afar but not so fun when anyone was in the thick of the action. Since there were only two kinds of lives that move, the zerg or the human. If the one wasn't a human then it must be a zerg. Charlie Company was heavily engaged in action, they were swarmed by the zergs. Wave after waves of zergs were repelled as they forced their ways though the blockade. The lucky thing was that the Charlie Company had a few dozens of those newly developed mobile infantry support suits. 

The battle suit wasn't pretty but robust enough to handle any terrain and situation, especially ones like this. The interior of the suit was pretty much as anyone would have expected, tight and uncomfortable. The occupant had to be secured by harnessing all the seat belts together. The designer didn't care about the comfort of the occupants, only for the combat effectiveness of the suit. As long as the occupant won't suffocate, that was fine. 

The suit was big, bigger any of the humans. It was extensively armored in all areas. Its reactive armors were sufficient enough to cover all parts of the body as they could stop any projectiles with less than 1500mm of penetrating strength. Its joints were protected by extendible armor when moved into an exposing position, so no cheap blow could easily cripple the suit. 

For a single suit, it easily weighed about 760 pounds and for that weight, it still moved with amazing speed and agility. The armored body suits were outfitted with the latest military technologies. Apart from its built in 360 degree by 100 meters motion tracker and GPS equipment. It had electronic shock wave glass visor to allow the person inside to view its surrounding in infrared, electromagnetic and x-ray. The visor also had built in auto aiming system for its missiles. 

The battle suits were also outfitted with the latest killing tools. Mounted on both shoulders were the new MR 22s missiles. Fitted with high explosive and napalm that ignite on impact. The only thing that could fully kill a zerg nowadays was fire. The missile could also function as rockets. They were very useful if an area needed immediate cleaning. Each suit was equipped with about 200 of these. The suit had no hand but in replacement, they were armed with a pair of 9mm chainguns, one on each arm. Accompanying the chaingun was a flame-thrower similar to that of the IC-11 except with a larger muzzle and a bigger fuel canister. The other sidekick to the chaingun was the LZ-3000s particle beam laser cannon. Accurate and penetrating. No zerg carapaces could stand against the laser. The only draw back was that the laser soaked up the energy too quickly and would shut down if overheated. The most important aspect of the suit was that it was also equip with the movement sensory tools. Other words, whatever the occupants do, the suit would do the same. The suits could also jump to a considerable height that no human could. 5 meters was the maximum because of the mini nitrogen booster fitted on the bottom of the feet. If the suit happened to be in an unfortunate position, they could always jump out of it, and crush a few upon on their landing. 

While the Charlie Company was cutting through the zerg ranks, the Bravo company slipped in unnoticed, or that was what they thought was. Although the zerg had no defense structure, it didn't mean they had no defense for their cave's entrance. When the Bravo Company had ventured onto their creep, sections of the creep sunk into and revealed their defensive spikes stored within and began to project them at the marines. Few were caught straight on and the pikes easily drove through their bodies. The luck few were maimed, even though the pain was excruciating, it was still better than being dead.

'Scatter! Grenade the two pits!' The order of Coleman was sharp and sound. The marines quickly dived for cover and shot back. Neither bullets nor grenades seemed to be able to cause any harm. When the grenades were lobbed at the spike pit, it quickly let the creep cover it as the grenades exploded harmlessly. Only when the Red Arrow hand held missile launcher was brought in play, some fruitful result happened.

Although the pit could stand bullets and grenade, it could not hold off the missile. The heavy penetration of the missile easily ripped through the creep and blew the three spike pits inside out by three Red Arrow missiles.

The Bravo Company moved forth yet again. Having only lost about 20 men so, far they have done pretty good. The cave entrance was only about 200 meters away as the fighting around it was getting intensive. The Charlie Company got most of the zergs pretty well occupied as the Bravo Company had relative little resistance. Little resistance in this case meant no more then two hundred zergs went for them.

'Get the cavern buster ready!' The cavern buster was like a mini nuke, especially designed for the unreachable zerg cave. It had a timer set and will go off after the time had expired. The buster was like a bag and it had to be thrown into to the cave's entrance and let it fall deep enough into the cave and let it explode from inside out. The cave may be invincible from aerial or orbital bombing, not from a little spark within it.

The distance was shrinking as the Bravo boys and girls were uninterrupted. A cheap victory could happen shortly but the zergs had other plans. From hundreds of the tunnels, a few hundreds zergs came out and charged for the closest human enemy. 

The zerglings charge the marines with amass, they just pounced on anything that was not zerg. The hydralisks were far more dangerous as their carapace provide all the difficulties for the bullets to penetrate as the marines had to switch to the rather more risky weapon, the grenade launchers at close quarter. Result was as imagined. Quiet a few were killed by the shrapnel of the grenade explosions. However, not all were bad, as the grenades in the hands of the pros were truly deadly. Veterans could single handily flatten a closely-knit groups of zergs with one grenade if shot with great precision. 

'Veterans' like Rebecca Zhang took out anther six zergs with a calm and well placed lob of grenade that exploded in the centre of them. More zergs were coming from the flanks but in all of sudden, the zergs were crawling out in front the marines as well.

The only way was back for the Bravo Company. And that too looked impossible when another group of zergs emerged from the hidden tunnels behind them. There were fair amounts of covers in the ruins of the long abandoned city. 

Machine gunner Jackson and Rudy were merely missed by the spikes shot from the spiklings. The pair of machine gunner gave back their immediate attention and pumped the zergs full of lead before they had any chance to recuperate the spikes and shoot again.

The zergs were mobbing in from all direction. And the marines were slowly encircled. Bombing was called off as they would surely kill scores of marines as well as the zergs. The top priority now was the total destruction of the cave. Lieutenant Coleman desperately urged all to advance but that was getting difficult by the minute.

'Platoon 3 and 4, you hold them off. The rest of you charge for the cave entrance and just get the damn buster into it!' The lieutenant had the cave buster in hand as he led the marine forward. But suddenly the ground beneath him diverged as he fell, into a pit of zerglings

His scream of anger not of pain. Sergeant Zhang rushed to rescue but she knew before hand that was useless.

'You…have just been promoted to lieutenant…take this and…blo…' That was the last thing Rebecca heard from Coleman before he was taken down and shredded. 

Rebecca picked up the explosive and unconsciously noted that it had been armed. Probably from the finger jerking by Coleman when he was attacked. A flame thrower soldier fell right beside her as two hydralisks headed for her way. She dropped to the ground and let the flame soldier's body as a shield for the two spikes and then she used the flame-thrower to ignite the zergs. Burning them always gave her the satisfaction. Only to the fact that her parents were victims of the zergs' infamous 3 all. She glanced at the time again, and now it dropped to 4 minutes. She also looked at her palm radar and she was only 50 yards away from the entrance. She looked at her path while wiping the sweat off her head, she decided to make a break for it. 

This was like the good old football match back in the college days. With the flamer from the dead soldier in one hand and the buster in the other, Rebecca ran with full pace towards the entrance. Here was when all similarities with football ended. Back in the college, the opposition guys tried to tackle and stop her, the opposition zerg here will probably do anything to put her out of the contest. When zergs tried to crash at her straight on, she unleashed a stream of liquid napalm and toasted a whole bunch of them. Another three hydralisks charged at her. She timed a perfect leap over then with amazing acrobatic ability, while doing a mid term twist in the air. She also managed to turn the three hydralisks to crisp with doing the flipping. 

The last few seconds went by in almost slow motion. Rebecca knew that the time was down to ten seconds and she was still ten meters away. She threw the buster bag with all of her might. The bag went over hundreds of zergs as they too looked at it in bewilderment. The zergs' expression changed from bewilderment to shock then to terror as the bomb went straight into cave in a perfect arc. The ground rumbled shortly as the cave exploded from within. The ground near the cave all bulged upwards and the full impact of the explosion rocked everything in its 1-mile radius. The seismic wave also ripped through countless hordes of zergs that were within the explosion area. Their bodies simply went apart. The humans were affected much less as the seismic shock was designed to kill zergs.

Through the mist of smoke, Rebecca could smell the strong odor of the zerg. When the smoke had dissipated, she could see a huge crater created by the explosion and bits and pieces that belong to the hive along had been blown to the surface. Something that look like the unhatched eggs were still alive but slowly they died. Rebecca showed no remorse as she simply stepped on them and deliberately meshed them to ensure they won't pop up again.

The foul smell of rotten flesh and stale egg combined was too foul, Rebecca could even taste it. She threw up, even her vomit tasted better then the foul stench. When she had finished she could feel her body was shivering all over and was perspiring cold sweat. Other soldiers came up to her and patted her as a congratulation. She barely had the strength to return the thanks. She felt weak, every sound sounded so dragged and unclear. Her vision was also a blur. The last thing she remembered was that her knee buckled as she fell and everything went blank.

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Alfred's army hospital

Rebecca woke in a nightmare as she was chased down by a few thousand zergs and was slowly dissected and played around by them. She was well alive as the dissection took place. She felt much stronger now, still sweating heavily. The doctor told her that she fainted from over exhaustion and needed rest. She was given two more days of rest in the hospital 

On the final day, she was visited by General Fallconio, a four star big shot who normally didn't give a damn about the lives of the soldiers, only their pride. This was different, through the most talked about the scene capture on screen of Lieutenant Zhang's inspiring throw of the bomb that rid the last remnant of the zergs. He had to pay a visit.

As he entered her room, Gen. Fallconio saw Zhang was up and was exercising the traditional push-ups. She immediately noticed the general and saluted with discipline. Rebecca Zhang reminded the general of his long dead wife. She was oriental by the Earth standard. Head strong and dashing in action, striking beautiful in appearance. Rebecca was a lovely girl, by her nature people will immediately be attracted to her. She had long black hair and soft brown eyes. Even though the battlefield had made her rough and 'man' like, she was still gentle and caring for most of the time. A person's nature can never be changed no matter under what circumstances. At one stage Fallconio even pitied Rebecca that a person of such quality was wasted in the army, she should have chased other professions such as modeling or the movie industry, while being rich and famous, she could also stand out of the war. He decided to hold his question because he thought it as silly. That could well hurt the pride of a soldier. The worst injury to a soldier was not death but the damage of the pride. 

'At easy Lieutenant.' He said.

'Sorry sir, lieutenant?' She choked up the title.

'First lieutenant, when you are ready to leave, sign up at docking bay 4 and that will get you to Corrojeva.' Fallconio explained. 'So, lieutenant familiarize yourself with the new rank and I will see you around. You might one day be seated next to my office for a few more moves like that at Marjib.'

'What would I do at Corrojeva'

'Well, let me offer you a clue, the only thing more difficult to handle than the zergs are to make beardless grunts to hate them.'

'An marine instructor.'

'Well, a lieutenant has his or her difficulties too.' He saluted, turned and left.

Hmmm, first lieutenant, not bad, she thought, at least she could exert some authority over the troops at last. She would carry on the job of the past away lieutenant Coleman. She shrugged off the thought and continued the push-ups. 


End file.
